Late-adolescents face the challenges of leaving their families and creating lives of their own. Research has focussed on factors affecting their adjustment as they make this transition. Attachment theory is a useful model for understanding this process of adjustment, as moving away from home has been likened to a naturally occurring adolescent-equivalent of the Strange Situation that is used to measure security and style of attachment in infants. First year university students compose a large population of late-adolescents who recently left home, and attachment theory has been used as a basis for understanding the process of adjustment to university. The security of students' attachments to their parents impacts upon their adjustment in several domains. This research has not been linked to the growing literature on adult attachment styles. History of exposure to trauma has been linked to attachment style and to psychological adjustment in undergraduate students, but has not been linked directly to the process of adjustment to university. In the current study, the impacts on adjustment to university of security of attachment to parents, adult attachment style, and history of exposure to trauma were examined using path-analytic models. It was proposed that relationships between security of attachment to parents and adjustment to university would be entirely mediated by adult attachment style. It was also proposed that trauma and its negative after effects would have both direct impacts on adjustment to university, and indirect impacts through attachment style. The results did not support adult attachment style as a strong mediator of the relationship between security of attachment to parents and adjustment to university. Security of attachment style did predict self-perceived academic and social adjustment. Security of attachment style at the beginning of the year was a more important predictor than security of attachment style later in the year. Having a more preoccupied attachment style was linked to conformity motives for drinking. Trauma and its negative after effects had strong impacts on self-perceived emotional adjustment, also impacted significantly upon academic and social adjustment, and was related to drinking to cope with negative affect. The impact of trauma on adjustment in all domains was stronger later in the year than at the beginning of the year. The results are discussed in terms of implications for attachment theory, for the process of adjustment to university, and for the facilitation of adjustment among insecure and previously traumatized students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/6274 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Smerek, Alison. |
| Contributors | Johnson-Douglas, Susan, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 242 p. |
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